Strike: 7 lecturers sacked in Oyo

FOLLOWING the failure of the striking lecturers of the Oyo State-owned tertiary institutions to call off their strike last Friday as directed by the state government, seven of the lecturers have been sacked.

The state government made good its threat to sack any of the striking workers of the state-owned tertiary institutions who failed to report for work with the announcement of the sack of lecturers of the Emmanuel Alayande College of Education (EACOE), Oyo town.

The announcement of the sack of the lecturers was monitored on the state-owned radio and television stations, the Broadcasting Corporation of Oyo State (BCOS).

The announcement was repeated intermittently on all the channels of the broadcast organ and was said to have been carried out by the governing council of the institution.

Though the circumstances surrounding the sack remained sketchy as at the time of filling this report, the state Commissioner for Education, Professor Taoheed Adedoja, confirmed the development through his Press Secretary, Mr. Tunde Ajibike, who said that the commissioner was aware of the sack of the workers.

It will be recalled that Adedoja had on Wednesday announced the decision of the state government to sack any of the striking workers of the Polytechnic, Ibadan, and Alayande College of Education in Oyo that failed to report for duty by Friday last week.

Workers of both institutions have been on strike since June over alleged high taxation and non-payment of 21-month Consolidated Tertiary Institutions Salary Structure (CONTISS).

It was reported that over 75 per cent of the workers at The Polytechnic, Ibadan, reported for duty in Ibadan and its two campuses in Eruwa and Saki on Friday in compliance with the directive of the state government which opened a register for the workers.

Meanwhile, a non-governmental organisation, African Liberation Organisation (ALO) has condemned the Oyo State government’s threat and the eventual sack of some of the striking workers of The Polytechnic, Ibadan, and Emmanuel Alayande College of Education, Oyo.

The organisation, in a statement signed by its National Coordinator and Project Coordinator, Lekan Balogun and Olakunle Oladapo respectively, described the state government’s action as crude and oppressive and that it had exposed its contempt for accountability, good governance and democratic values.

It added that such disposition would invariably undermine stability and economic development, not only in Oyo State but also in Nigeria in general.

According to the organisation, the threat of sack and eventual implementation of the threat in Emmanuel Alayande College of Education where it was reported that seven of the workers had been sacked, was a “throwback to the state of nature where the maxim of might is right is the guiding rule.’’

It added that it was the habitual demonstration of what it called the inability of the present Oyo State government to intellectually situate trade union disputes and the absence of the needed capacity to formulate appropriate policy response.

The ALO reiterated the fact that Nigerian workers reserved the democratic and constitutional right to embark on strike as a traditional instrument to resist oppression or negotiate for better wages and work conditions which was sanctioned by both International Labour Organisation (ILO) and African Charter on Human Rights, the membership and signatory of which Nigeria parades.

On the tax regime, one of the reasons for which the strike was declared by the workers of the two tertiary institutions, the NGO said, “it is incredible that a government could saddle its employees with as much as 20 per cent tax deduction from salaries at a time of global financial meltdown like this when civilised governments are improvising ways like downward review of tax regime to boost the purchasing power of their citizens in order to stimulate productivity and employment.’’

It equally noted that it would have been a different matter if there had been a corresponding responsibility on the part of government through the money accruing to the state through statutory allocation from the Federation Account, wondering “in what ways has this government justified the huge revenue receipts from the Federal Government in the last couple of years by way of infrastructural provision for instance, to merit the current unprogressive tax drive.’’

By: Adebayo Waheed